Who was the cruel king of Israel in the bible?

Answer 1

King Heron

You mean King HeroD. There were several cruel Isralite monarchs in The Bible, but the most notorious was Herod Antipas III. He was a puppet ruler kept in power by the occupying Romans, in order to keep the Israeli people in subjection and prevent mass civil unrest- using his own armed forces to crush any rebellion, it saved the Roman colonial administration both money and manpower in having to do this themselves.

Herod III is remembered as a villain because he was in power at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ- hearing that the newborn baby was prophesied to grow up to be King of the Jews, he feared for the security of his own Royal line, so issued an order that all newborn baby boys in his kingdom should be killed, an appalling act of genocide that resulted in the deaths of thousands of infants.

It has been speculated down the Centuries that Herod may have been insane.